KL starts recruiting Bangladeshi farmers this week

The
Bangladesh Workers Welfare Centre (BWWC), assigned for this manpower export, claimed
that prospect of local agricultural labour force’s being employed in Malaysian
plantation sector is bright as Indian and Indonesian farm workers take least interests
to work in this sector in the recent time.<P>&quot;This week we are sending
a team of 40 persons to Malaysia charging an amount of only Tk 60,000 as service
fee and by the next week another team of 50 persons would leave Dhaka&quot;, said
Golam Ahad, the BWWC chairman, at a press conference at the Reporters Unity auditorium
in the city yesterday.</P><P>&quot;We know that it is tough for the average farmer
families to pay a huge sum of money, so we made arrangements that the employers
in Malaysia pay for the tickets of the intending migrants&quot;, he said.</P><P>Then
the primary charge to go to Malaysia would be reduced to Tk 25-30 thousand, he
said, adding, &quot;we already had signed agreements with some of the Malaysian
companies&quot;.</P><P>Responding to a query, he said theirs is not a recruiting
agency, but an organisation that would act as a catalyst to ensure welfare of
Bangladeshi expatriates in Malaysia.</P><P>&quot;In every one hundred men, we
would send a socially disadvantaged person free of cost to Malaysia&quot;, he
announced.</P><P>&quot;If we can explore the prospects for our farm workers in
the Malaysian farming, we are hopeful that our compatriots would be able to earn
name through their sincerity, the BWWC chief went on.</P><P>Ahad, a Bangladesh-born
Malaysian citizen who has been living there since 1977, was also critical of the
Bangladeshi recruitment agencies and their association, Baira (Bangladesh Association
of International Recruitment Agencies), saying that this trade body has long been
charging much higher than what is required to export manpower there.</P><P>He
made an assurance that the BWWC would never charge unusual sum of money from the
poor persons.</P><P>So far, profit-monger agencies exported educated Bangladeshi
youths to Malaysia to work in that country’s farming sector, but they usually
have apathy for being farm workers, Ahad also told journalists, adding that once
they are employed in the farms, they get dissatisfied and frustrated as they cannot
adapt, and flee the farms concerned and finally head towards factories.</P><P>&quot;As
the practice is contrary to the Malaysian law, we plan to export only the surplus
agricultural labourers to the plantation sector in Malaysia so that they do not
face any trouble to work there,&quot; Ahad disclosed.</P><P>He also expressed
hope that in the coming days they would be able to export Bangladeshi labourers
in other sectors of Malaysia at a much cheaper cost.</P><P><I>Source: http://www.thedailystar.net/2007/01/21/d70121050163.htm</I></P>